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Friday, January 30, 2004Scientists from Boston's Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and the Harvard School of Public Health found little convincing evidence that patients who had enrolled in clinical trials lived longer or suffered fewer recurrences or progressions of disease than did their counterparts who received standard treatment outside a trial. The study wasn't a great one. It looked at other studies that dealt with outcomes of various clinical trials and found them wanting. But, that's been my experience with patients who enroll in clinical trials. They travel great distances at great expense to participate but end up dying with the same frequency as my patients who opt for local care. Which is why it's important, when a patient asks about clinical trials, to make it clear that if they want to do it for the good of others, then by all means do it, but if their expectation is that they'll be cured, they should give it a hard second look: 'Clinical trials are critical to the advancement of cancer care,' said lead author Jeffrey M. Peppercorn, whose study appears in the Jan 24 issue of the British journal The Lancet, 'but it is important that people who enroll in a study understand that their participation is intended primarily to benefit future patients.' For many patients and families considering a clinical trial, however, the primary motive is not altruism but self-interest, a distinction that oncologists acknowledge is sometimes blurred by doctors seeking to recruit patients to their research studies or by those who believe care in trials is superior. posted by Sydney on 1/30/2004 08:26:00 AM 0 comments 0 Comments: |
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